Continued development of hardware and software applications to aid in business advertisement, coupled with explosive growth of the global network called the Internet, has motivated small businesses to maintain at least one computer that is dedicated to the purpose of advertising that business's products and services on-line. There are, at the present time, many small businesses who are advertising their products and services on the Internet. Many such small ventures are very limited in capital and must be very cautious about where they invest their money, especially, when it comes to advertisement, and most utilize various services provided by second parties for founding and maintaining a WEB page, such as an Internet Service Provider.
Larger companies and corporations, having much larger budgets dedicated to advertising, use the Internet and their own on-premises networking-telephony equipment to set up their own interactive on-line environments. By clicking an icon on a Web page, a customer can become connected to a private company sales and service network, receive goods and services, pay via Internet-secure transfer applications, and so on. Often, these corporate giants provide multi-media files such as surround-video shows of products, on-line catalogs, audio/video files, and the like. Typically, a potential customer can download such files to his or her PC or watch them on the Web page via an external viewer designed for that purpose. In some cases, the customer can enter his or her phone number and ask for a scheduled or immediate callback.
As Web page advertising via the Internet is still under some scrutiny as to whether or not it is generally profitable, many of the larger businesses are taking a wait and see approach while keeping with a simpler form of Web page advertisement wherein a customer can click an icon and receive a call back or a mailing at a later date. Even for a large business with sufficient capital, setting up a telephony-network for providing multi-media advertising is no casual undertaking. There are many variables to be considered when making such advertising decisions. One important consideration would be whether or not the market demographics of the target customer group would fit an Internet profile. For example, if the product or service can only be sold or performed locally, or within a certain geographical radius, it will not pay to invest in global exposure. If the target customer group is low in the percentage of persons having Internet access, it may not pay to advertise on-line. However, if the product or service is of a type as to be provided through mail order, or through some other criteria, appeals to a mass customer base, then setting up a private network system may be the way to go. As well, large companies feeling the pressure from like competitors who have their own networks are often drawn into the multi-media advertising game and set up similar networks so as not to be left behind.
There are at the time of this application many small companies which may include home-based businesses that offer products or services that appeal to mass customer groups. However, due to limited capital, these companies cannot afford to purchase sophisticated equipment such as file servers, routers, computers or other such apparatus that may be required to set up a private service network. A good many of these small organizations would love to grow beyond the infant stage and become major players in their fields, however, money constraints often severely limit the amount and quality of exposure that such a small business would receive through advertising. Typically, if these companies advertise on the Internet they may have only one Web page with a brief description of their products and services followed by an E-mail address and phone number where they can be reached. Interactive advertisements wherein multiple Web pages are maintained and network connections can be made, are generally reserved for businesses with more money to invest. The smaller organizations also typically turn to ISPs or other providers for maintaining a WEB page.
Through the growth of the Internet and the ability to network with other small businesses, many owners of small businesses have managed to obtain links on the Web pages of non-competitive business associates resulting in multiple links to their single Web page. While this may improve access to their particular Web page, it does not provide for the scope of sales and service capabilities afforded by a much larger corporation maintaining several Web pages and supporting a connectable service-network.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus whereby a small business, such as a home-based business, could have a direct network-connection with their potential clients wherein real-time interface and multi-media response to potential customers could be provided in a flexible manner and at a relatively low cost to the business owner. Such capability could be provided to the small business as a service by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or by yet another party. In embodiments of the invention taught below, such a service is referred to as ‘Green Pages’.